Traynor YBA200 eq tips

Anyone have any tips about how to eq this amp, i.e. how the controls work together, any good rock settings etc. I was also wondering if the eq was cut only, since it is passive? If so, is flat settings at 10 for all three frequencies?

Have you taken a look at the massive YBA200 Tweaks & Observations thread? Brent Norton started it and it's full of good info from guys more knowledgeable than myself. I had one and couldn't get my tone from it but that's not to say it sounded bad because it didn't. I could never get enough midrange out of the amp was my issue, but it had plenty of lows and highs and these were easy enough to dial in or out. The treble control seemed to be the most powerful, then bass and last midrange. The other stuff, like Resonance, Scoop... forget that crap. It won't do you a damn bit of good if you're anything like me. Set it to zero and just use gain, master and the EQ's. Keep the mids cranked up, the treble low and the bass in the mid to high range, that was the best I could do with her for rock. Also consider changing out some of the tubes in it, specifically the preamp tubes with lower gain 12AT7's or something of even lower gain. this will offer you more clean headroom, more mids in the signal as you can turn the gain up higher and in general is a useful idea. Now where's someone smarter than me to explain everything I just said?

Yes, I read that thread. However, it seems to focus more on the tube aspect, rather than the eqing aspect. I will try some 12AT7s, but anyone else have some tips for getting a good sound out of this amp?

Nope, 10s boosted all the way. I always used 5 as flat, but it could be that 10 on the mids is flat there and 5 on treble and bass is flat... try this: put everything on the amp at zero. Then turn the gain to 5, the treble to 3, the mids to 10, the bass to 6 or 7 and the master volume to 4 or 5 or whatever you're comfortable with. See if that helps at all, that's how I used to run it but I had a pair of 12AT7 Mullards in the preamp section so you might want less gain but start with this and work from there. It should give you a decent sound at least even if it's nothing special. I always found the head had way too much treble and not enough midrange partly due to a lack of clean headroom from the preamp section.

Yeah if you turn all the EQ knobs to zero it's basically like muting, no sound comes out. It's a good amp though with respectable output if you can get different preamp tubes to lower the gain thereby allowing you to increase your gain setting. It just doesn't stay clean long enough and doesn't produce enough mids for a midrange freak like me. Hence my love for GK and such.